For quick, healthy calories:
Hey fellas sorry I haven’t replied sooner, I’ve been really busy with work lately (still found time to work out though!)
For the most part I’ve found everyone’s comments to be encouraging, I guess I just have to realise that this is a long term thing and that results dont come overnight. Thanks for the encouragement!
Quite a few people asked me how I train so I’ll detail exactly what I do in a typical week:
SUNDAY:
bench press 5 sets
incline bench press 2 sets
dumbbell flat bench 1 set
pullups 5 sets
lat pulldown 2 sets
cable row 2 sets
shrugs 2 sets
forearm work
TUESDAY:
overhead press 5 sets
rear delt raises 5 sets
lateral raise 2 sets
skull crushers 2 sets
dumbell kickbacks 1 set
cable pushdown 2 sets
pullups 2 sets
forearm work
THURSDAY:
dumbbell curls 3 sets
barbell curl 1 set
hammer curl 1 set
shrugs 2 sets
deadlifts 6 sets
pullups 2 sets
forearm work
FRIDAY:
overhead press 5 sets
rear delt raises 5 sets
lateral raises 2 sets
squats 7 sets
leg press or lunges 3 sets
WHY DO I TRAIN LIKE THIS?
-i’ve found that back, forearms and traps respond best to really high frequency
-i have shoulder issues, and have found that the only thing that keeps them working well is stretching every morning and training them at least 2x week
-i get crazy DOMS in the legs this way and they’re not fully healed again til the next wednesday (they are trained thurs or friday), so i can only train them once a week
-i do a total of 5 sets for triceps and 5 sets for biceps in a typical week. any more than this and i feel like they are overtrained.
-i never gave much of a s**t about calves, maybe one day i will train them, who knows.
—TO BE HONEST, I DON’T REALLY WANT ANY ADVICE ON HOW I TRAIN, IT’S WHAT WORKS FOR ME AND I SIMPLY PUT IT DOWN BECAUSE QUITE A FEW PEOPLE ASKED ME ABOUT IT—
WHAT DO I EAT IN A TYPICAL DAY?
—wake up—
protein shake with a banana, 10 scrambled eggs (3 yolks), 3 slices brown bread, glass of milk, cup of coffee, 1 whole fish, creatine
—train—
large beef or chicken curry with brown rice or wholewheat pasta, can of tuna, pint of milk, creatine
—later—
smoothie: protein powder, milk, 1 banana, oatmeal, ice
—later—
big bag of nuts
MACROS:
4100 calories, 355g protein, 224g carbs, 198g fat
HOW CAN YOU HELP ME?
-i guess by analysing my diet, lately i’ve kind of ditched the whole idea of eating every 2 hours and 30+g protein with every meal and all that, mainly due to reading up on intermittent fasting. i’ve kind of just figured if i get the right amount of macros in at the end of the day then surely the results will follow. do you agree with this?
-i have 2 more years of study to go before i enter the big bad world, so i plan to make the most of them. do you think i could potentially reach 240LBS with a similar bf% in that time?
-i’ve gotten to know myself and my habits and found that if i overthink my diet then i end up completely derailing and making zero progress. my current approach is “this is the pile of food for today. by the time you go to sleep it should all be gone.” however that pile of food is always the same, every day, it is listed above. aside from that i’m not too strict on when i eat, meal times etc, although i generally try to lean towards carbs+ protein in the morning and early afternoon, and fat+protein in the late afternoon /evening. i know this method will stop me from derailing, so should i just roll with it?
CONCLUSION:
thanks to everyone whos posted so far. generally speaking this is a diet/motivation/how to stay on track thread, so i have to say a special thanks to njrusmc for his post, but feel free to chime in about anything at all. I am in your debt fellas 
-IrishOak
Wow, someone who’s workout routine is gonna get slammed worse than mine.
You never mentioned your rep range, but I’m assuming 5 reps for most exercises.
Lots of volume. Less volume can make you grow better.
I’m with you on the shoulders. I do extra laterals on top of my presses as I find it ‘brings them out’ more. I’m not sure shoulder press 5 x 5 twice in the space of 48 hours (they’re getting hammered in your becmnch pressing and rowing / pulll downs etc) is doing them any favours and could lead to tendon / ligament/ rotator damage down the road.
As per eating calories - man I HATE huge meals. They make me feel tired, lethargic and just gross. I get more than half my cals from skimmed milk mixed with my whey powder. 4 servings of whey gives me 480 cals plus 100g of protien and the litre of skimmed milk bumps the protien up to 130g and the cals up to 940 cals. If I used full fat milk I could bump the cal count to 1170 cals. SO I only need to eat around 1700 cals through food and am highly tempted to just add another litre of skimmed milk to help with that as I really only like two eaten meals a day, one around 1pm and then one around 6pm and that’s all.
So yeah gist of it is it’s easier to drink cals than eat them so look into lean sources of liquid meals etc, I know other people mix peanut biutter in with their milk + protien powder etc. Half a cup of PB would add around 800 cals and 64 g protien but would also add 130 g of fat - which is sick. An extra litre of SKIMMED milk on top would add 32 g protien, around 460 cals and only ALMOST ZERO FAT.
I ALWAYS FOUND ZERO FAT MILK a great way to get protien and cals mixed with a good whey powder as a way of helping along gains whilst keeping the fat off along with cardio. Basically most of my daily cals comes from protien and only two servings of carbs (rice / pasta) a day (plus the small ammount in the milk an p-powder), some veg and the only fat will be on meat or in eggs.
I’mm all about low fat intake, high protien intake, moderate carbs.
Chris87 will be along soon to tell you not to listen to me as I’ve only ever worked out 7 time sin my life apparently lol.
As always there are those that espouse low fat, med carbs, high protien and those that say on the contrary, ingesting more fat will mean your body burns more fat through exercise etc blah blah. Everyone’s milieage varies…
I still like to drink most of my cals when working out and get the rest through fist sized rice / pasta servings and steaks, eggs, fish, othe rmeat etc. Mmmmmmm steak. Who azmongst us couldn’t eat steak for breakfast, lunch and dinner?!
[quote]leon36 wrote:
Wow, someone who’s workout routine is gonna get slammed worse than mine.
You never mentioned your rep range, but I’m assuming 5 reps for most exercises.
Lots of volume. Less volume can make you grow better.
I’m with you on the shoulders. I do extra laterals on top of my presses as I find it ‘brings them out’ more. I’m not sure shoulder press 5 x 5 twice in the space of 48 hours (they’re getting hammered in your becmnch pressing and rowing / pulll downs etc) is doing them any favours and could lead to tendon / ligament/ rotator damage down the road.
[/quote]
Pics of shoulders with lateral heads that have been ‘brought out more’ please? Stop giving advice to people who are no less advanced than you.
Could’ve shown them 2 years ago. Not now after 2 year lay off and two years of hard alcoholism and 72 hr gambling sprees and insomnia due to hypomania phase of bipolar2, I’m afraid.
Stop being a backseat moderator and stop making assumptions about people you don’t know.
Look at my ‘lagging lats’ thread. See how fucking skinny I was before 7 workouts- last pic in thread. Then look at the pic at the top of the thread and see the visible deltoids. Not saying I’m in great or good shape, just anyone makes those gains in 7 workouts might know what he’s doing huh?
[quote]leon36 wrote:
Could’ve shown them 2 years ago. Not now after 2 year lay off and two years of hard alcoholism and 72 hr gambling sprees and insomnia due to hypomania phase of bipolar2, I’m afraid.
Stop being a backseat moderator and stop making assumptions about people you don’t know.
Look at my ‘lagging lats’ thread. See how fucking skinny I was before 7 workouts- last pic in thread. Then look at the pic at the top of the thread and see the visible deltoids. Not saying I’m in great or good shape, just anyone makes those gains in 7 workouts might know what he’s doing huh?[/quote]
The OP in this thread does not need your help. He is miles ahead of you in his physique and I’m sure his strength as well.
7 workouts was your words, not mine.
[quote]leon36 wrote:
Could’ve shown them 2 years ago. Not now after 2 year lay off and two years of hard alcoholism and 72 hr gambling sprees and insomnia due to hypomania phase of bipolar2, I’m afraid.
Stop being a backseat moderator and stop making assumptions about people you don’t know.
Look at my ‘lagging lats’ thread. See how fucking skinny I was before 7 workouts- last pic in thread. Then look at the pic at the top of the thread and see the visible deltoids. Not saying I’m in great or good shape, just anyone makes those gains in 7 workouts might know what he’s doing huh?[/quote]
Aha, I thought so. OK, I’m sorry I yelled at you in the thread previously. In case you’re not aware, I don’t think your neurosis is fully under control. If you’re not seeing a psychologist currently, I suggest you do so.
Anyway, please stop posting here. It’s not the place for you.
[quote]IrishOak wrote:
-i guess my biggest obstacle has always been diet so any tips that you have used to keep it consistent would be great. sometimes finding the motivation to shove 4000 calories down my throat every single day is something i struggle with. I guess i need to just man up and eat. [/quote]
If your goal is a weight above your current weight, you must eat more calories than you consume. If you don’t have the motivation for it, then being 240lb isn’t that important to you.
I’m 6’3". I went from 180 to 230 in 18 months and yes, the eating got old - namely because I ate the same shit every single day (meal-to-meal variety is not possible when preparing 5,000cals/day worth of food). Also, 50lbs on me was not nearly as noticeable as it would be on anyone of normal height. It’s just the hand we’re dealt.
The positive is that if you DO fill out your tall frame, it looks that much more impressive than a filled-out dude at 5’7".
It will take time. Just be honest with yourself in your assesment of progression. If the scale hasn’t moved in 2-3 weeks it is time to man up and figure out how to get some more cals down your throat.
Wait wait wait… you have 25 upper body exercises per week and 3 lower body?
How the fuck do you expect to weigh 240lbs with no mass on your largest muscles (quads/hams)?
[quote]IrishOak wrote:
-i get crazy DOMS in the legs this way and they’re not fully healed again til the next wednesday (they are trained thurs or friday), so i can only train them once a week[/quote]
This goes away if you make a commitment to train them more often. I have horrid leg DOMS too. Typically I train squats/leg press/hammies on Tues and deads/front squats/hammies/prowler on Friday. If I take even ONE week off (i.e. go on vacation), my legs will be so sore from a single heavy set of squats that I can’t work them for 5-6 days. Then I’ll be able to do another squat session, and 3 days later I can deadlift. The week after that I get back to doing my full assistance work.
The body adapts to frequency quickly. DOMS is a good sign you don’t train that bodypart enough.
[quote]LoRez wrote:
Also, replace milk with half & half or cream (in shakes or whatever), and you up the calories significantly. Vince Gironda recommended half & half mixed with ginger ale. It tastes a lot better than it sounds. Just adding a few more options.[/quote]
I just wanted to qualify this a bit.
“Replace milk with h&h or cream” is an approach used by hospitals. I won’t say it’s standard practice everywhere, but it’s been used by the medical community for dealing with underweight patients. Obviously you’re not underweight, but the information is still useful.
Half & half + ginger ale has worked for me; it wasn’t just something I read in a book. I go through about a liter of each a day, drunk throughout the day. That’s about 1600 calories and 29g of protein.
I’ve seen better results with this than with GOMAD; more muscle, less fat gain. I went from 140 to 152 in a little over 4 weeks. My diet’s been fairly low-carb outside of this; trying to stick primarily with P+F meals.
Obviously 4 weeks isn’t much to go on, and I’m an isolated case. However, I gave it a chance and have seen results, and it supposedly also worked well for Vince Gironda’s clients. Given that Gironda trained Larry Scott, Mohamed Makkawy, and Arnold (and many others), I’m willing to give his ideas a chance.
[quote]leon36 wrote:
Could’ve shown them 2 years ago. Not now after 2 year lay off and two years of hard alcoholism and 72 hr gambling sprees and insomnia due to hypomania phase of bipolar2, I’m afraid.
Stop being a backseat moderator and stop making assumptions about people you don’t know.
Look at my ‘lagging lats’ thread. See how fucking skinny I was before 7 workouts- last pic in thread. Then look at the pic at the top of the thread and see the visible deltoids. Not saying I’m in great or good shape, just anyone makes those gains in 7 workouts might know what he’s doing huh?[/quote]
I HAVE checked out your ‘lagging lats’ threat and it’s one of the main reasons I’m calling you out when you give advice. So far your advice/questions don’t seem like they come from someone who has even trained for 1 year solid in their entire life time.
EDIT: Just checked out the photos again in your ‘lagging lats’ thread. The only difference between your ‘before and after’ photos (with 7 workouts in between) that I see is that your tensing in the first one.
1.5 yrs?.. you have correctly posted in the beginners forum (and I am correctly reading in the beginners forum). Some simple advice I was given at my first plateau:
[quote]scj119 wrote:
[quote]IrishOak wrote:
-i get crazy DOMS in the legs this way and they’re not fully healed again til the next wednesday (they are trained thurs or friday), so i can only train them once a week[/quote]
This goes away if you make a commitment to train them more often. I have horrid leg DOMS too. Typically I train squats/leg press/hammies on Tues and deads/front squats/hammies/prowler on Friday. If I take even ONE week off (i.e. go on vacation), my legs will be so sore from a single heavy set of squats that I can’t work them for 5-6 days. Then I’ll be able to do another squat session, and 3 days later I can deadlift. The week after that I get back to doing my full assistance work.
The body adapts to frequency quickly. DOMS is a good sign you don’t train that bodypart enough.[/quote]
scj119 I’ve taken your comments into account (training wise) amd decided to change up the routine a bit to incorporate more frequency with leg work. I’m going to be starting a 5/3/1 template that looks like this:
Mon: Press
-press 531
-db laterals x2
-1h db press x2
-chins x2
-biceps 5 sets
Tues: Deadlift
-deadlift 531
-stiff leg deadlift x3
-cable row x3
-forearms
Thurs: Bench
-bench 531
-incline bench x1
-db bench x1
-chins x3
-triceps 5 sets
Fri: Squat
-squat 531
-lunges x3
-front squat x2
-weighted decline crunch x3
-rollouts (ab exercise, hold barbell, roll it away from you then backwards whilst stabalizing your abs) x2
-forearms
About the diet advice i will definitely look into the cream, and also i realize i just need to force food down my throat. yesterday 2 of my meals almost made me puke but i guess thats the price of getting big. gone are the days when i can add mass whilst eating comfortably lol
I would appreciate opinions on my new routine!
-IriskOak